Entry: Bill Guyton

Last week, I traveled to the small town of Ngoumou, Cameroon with a group of World Cocoa Foundation members and partners. We had the opportunity to meet with cocoa farmers currently participating in a Farmer Field School and farmers who are Farmer Field School graduates training to become facilitators.

Mrs. Caroline Mongue (pictured above) is one of several cocoa farmers who spoke with us at length. Mrs. Mongue joins approximately 30 dedicated cocoa farmers and Ministry of Agriculture staff from the area training to become Farmer Field School facilitators under the Sustainable Tree Crops Program. Mrs. Mongue and her colleagues participate in several 14 day sessions of intensive training over a nine month period coinciding with the crop cycle. During the sessions, facilitators receive advanced training in technical topics such as cultivation practices and farm safety, and learn group dynamics and how to lead the group in hands-on activities. Mrs. Mongue will complete her training and receive her certificate this summer.

A Farmer Field School graduate herself, Mrs. Mongue is enthusiastic about the opportunity to share her knowledge with other farmers in the community and looks forward to the day when she will facilitate a group of 30 to 40 farmers in their first Farmer Field School session. Despite many challenges facing farmers – such as poor road conditions and little access to improved planting materials - she notes that local Farmer Field School graduates have experienced a 25% increase in yields which directly benefit farmers’ income. Other benefits are better cultivation methods, less pesticide use and improved farm safety practices.

I would like to thank Mr. Jonas Mva Mva, Cameroon country manager and Dr. Stephan Weise, regional manager of the Sustainable Tree Crops Program along with their colleagues at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture for organizing this visit.

The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) is implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria. STCP provides farmer training through the interactive Farmer Field School methodology. Trained facilitators, such as Mrs. Mongue, guide the discussions and hands-on activities with farmers providing input on the topics to be covered. STCP is one of several programs supported by the World Cocoa Foundation in West Africa.

Best Wishes from Cameroon, Bill

Entry: Bill Guyton

I wanted to share another story from my recent trip to Cameroon. In mid-March, our team drove to Ikeketo, a small village an hour and a half West of Younde. There we met with Evouna Mathias, an STCP Farmer Field School graduate. Evouna invited us to visit a small farm he inherited from his father. We were joined by about 50 neighbors and relatives from Ikeketo (below).

The cocoa trees were aged, but Evouna was following the improved FFS techniques he had learned and he was hoping for a better harvest this year. His wife, also a Farmer Field School graduate, helps Evouna on the farm (below).

They mentioned that one of the biggest problems they face is the lack of quality planting materials. We suggested that his Farmer Field School Facilitator establish a cocoa tree nursery in Ikeketo so that the local cocoa farmers can plant higher yielding, disease resistant trees along side their older trees. Tree seedlings are available at a research station 10 miles from the village. A new road is being constructed near Ikeketo which will help with the delivery of farm inputs and will help farmers to market their cocoa and other crops. Progress is gradual, but there are opportunities for progressive farmers like Evouna.

Entry: Bill Guyton

“Socamak” is a farmer cooperative located near Ngoumou, Cameroon with over 500 members. The cooperative was formed in 2003, through the assistance of Italian missionaries to help farmers improve production and marketing of food and cash crops.

Photo: Arriving at Socamak

The Socamak Coop provides improved cocoa, banana, okra and tomato seedlings to its members, in addition to training courses on establishing tree nurseries, intercropping techniques, basic farm management and leadership skills. The tree nurseries at Socamak are supported, in part, by USDA and the Sustainable Tree Crops Program. GTZ (German Development Agency) is also providing training on food crop production.

Photo: Banana nursery with seedlings ready to be planted in association with cocoa and other tree crops.

When I visited the coop in March, I learned more about the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and other benefits provided to Socamak members. One of the interesting FFS modules is on developing “Agricultural Calendars”. Farmers identify members of their family that perform different tasks during each month, as shown in the photo below.

In the calendar, you will notice that children help establish and care for tree nurseries, while their fathers usually clear fields for planting. Women water the tree seedlings, with help from their children. Men apply fertilizers, assisted by water carried by children, in some cases.

Photo: A very healthy cocoa tree nursery at the Sokamak Station.

“Agricultural Calendars” provide an opportunity for farmers to learn about farm safety and the types of farm activities appropriate and not appropriate for children. These include explaining the dangers of 1) pesticide applications, 2) carrying heavy loads, and 3) machete use. Another part of the farmer field school stresses the importance for children to stay in school, and limit the length of time they spend helping with chores on the farm. STCP is developing more advanced training on farm safety that will be included in upcoming Farmer Field Schools in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Entry: Rebecca Ashley Asare, Yale School of Forestry PhD candidate
World Cocoa Foundation grant recipient

At the end of March, I returned from Mensonso (pictured below), a cocoa farming village in Ghana’s Adansi South District, which is part of Ashanti Region. Mensonso is one of the villages where I am conducting my PhD research in Social Ecology from Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The goal of this research is to understand how cocoa farmers are managing shade trees in their young cocoa farms, and to identify those factors that are influencing their management.

If you ever have the chance to visit Ghana, you will quickly observe that what appears to be a forest on the horizon is in fact a vast area of cocoa farms with a rich canopy of shade trees, many of which have important economic value. What is fascinating to me about cocoa farming is the key role that farmers play in influencing the biological diversity of the landscape. Essentially, farmers select those forest trees that they want in their farms, and remove trees that they do not like or need. An older cocoa farm with mature shade trees presents a picture of the forest landscape from ten, twenty or even thirty years past, as these trees were “selected” when the farm was originally established. In studying young farms, I am trying to understand how current conditions will affect on-farm diversity in the future. One potential factor is on-farm logging. In Ghana this is an important issue because a large proportion of the country’s timber derives from cocoa farms. While timber is a renewable resource, in many ways the future of this resource depends on the decisions that farmers are making today.

Photo: Cocoa farmers from Mensonso

In Mensonso, timber companies have been logging trees from cocoa farms for over a decade. Sometimes they do so with the farmer’s permission; sometimes they take the tree without the farmer’s knowledge. In both cases, the felling of the tree causes extensive damage to the farm. Though I am yet to complete the research, it does appear that farmer’s opinions about logging are quite mixed. Some farmers are angry about the damage to their cocoa trees and lack of compensation, but feel powerless because under national law they cannot own the trees that regenerate naturally on their farms. Other farmers see it as a contribution to the nation, and gladly accept any small price that they may receive for their damaged cocoa. But how do these opinions translate into action? That is one of the questions that I hope to answer. Are farmers purposefully eliminating the valuable timber species in order to avoid damage, or will they maintain a diversified shade canopy regardless? One thing is clear- these trees are highly valuable for their local uses. While a Milicia species, locally known as Odum or Iroko, is valuable on national and international markets, it is also very important to the individual farmer who may retain this tree for his or her own uses, like for roofing, doors, furniture, or other household items. Despite the fact that it is technically illegal for farmers to cut and use these trees for timber, many of the farmers that I have interviewed maintain timber trees (if they are growing in their farm) as a future personal investment.

Photo: Rebecca Ashley Asare in the field.

Next week I will head to the field again, this time to the village of Kobro, in Amansie Central District, also in Ashanti Region. In this cocoa farming area there are no logging companies operating and so I want to see whether this lack of logging makes any difference in terms of the diversity and density of tree species that farmers are choosing for their young farms.

Entry: Bill Guyton

This week marked an important milestone for Ghana's Child Labor Steering Committee. The first ever certification report was issued for labor practices in Ghana's cocoa sector. The following links provide details of the survey's findings and other related information.

Prior to working for the World Cocoa Foundation, my knowledge of child labor was limited. As a Peace Corps school teacher in the Equateur Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I saw how school children worked on their parents’ coffee and rubber tree farms. They also helped teachers and church clergy by cutting firewood and carrying water. Life was not easy, and everyone was expected to help.

Students often brought machetes into the classroom, along with their books, so that they could go directly from school to the farms. I saw situations where children had been cut and injured while using their machetes.

Some of the students lived in a dormitory, away from their parents. They worked on neighboring farms to earn pocket money. Students, particularly girls, were often not encouraged to enroll beyond primary school.

During my final year there, three students passed the National State Exam, thus receiving their high school certificates. This was a cause for celebration at the school: no one had ever passed the exam. Despite this achievement, there were not many career options for school graduates in rural Congo.

When I joined the World Cocoa Foundation in 2000, child labor issues were barely on the radar screen. Our programs focused on improving farm incomes and helping to protect the environment. We discussed "social" interventions, but mostly in regards to health services.

In 2001, as reports of child labor in the cocoa sector of West Africa surfaced, we and others in the chocolate industry had to educate ourselves on this important issue.

We started working with labor experts, civil society and African government officials. We began work to incorporate a child labor component into our existing programs in farm communities, and to pursue new on-the-ground programs.

During this time, the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) was formed by industry and civil society to look at how best to address the worst forms of child labor in the West Africa cocoa sector.

Today, the situation is much different. Without question, there is much work to do: the Ghana report shows us that.

Yet I am heartened by how much things have changed since 2001:

-- As the Ghana report shows, we now have a process to give us a clear, detailed understanding of what's happening on the ground in cocoa farming communities.

-- West African governments are taking action.

-- We have programs to address the challenges raised in the Ghana report, and other important issues affecting the well-being of children.

-- Farm communities are engaged and driving change, through such efforts as the International Cocoa Initiative's "grassroots" approach.

For those of you who would like more information on child labor in Africa, I would highly recommend reading our information.

WCF also continues to update our information center on the social, economic and environmental aspects of growing and marketing cocoa.

Bill

Entry: Tracey Duffey

Last week, Bill Guyton and I attended the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners’ Association* (PMCA) 61st Production Conference held in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

This year’s conference marked a commemorative 100 year anniversary of PMCA which was established in 1907. The World Cocoa Foundation was deeply honored to receive the distinguished Hans Dresel Memorial Award in recognition of the Foundation’s outstanding contributions to the confectionery industry in the area of farmer training to improve cocoa quality. During the awards dinner, BK Matlick accepted the award on behalf of the Foundation and was accompanied by Alfredo Dueñas Davalos, a master trainer of Farmer Field Schools from Ecuador who has been working in collaboration with us for many years.

Several of our Board Members were also present at the dinner, and joined us for a picture (from left to right): Larry Graham, President of the National Confectioners Association; Alfredo; BK; Bill; Kip Walk, Director of Cocoa Procurement for Blommer Chocolate Company and WCF Co-Vice Chair; Lynn Bragg, President of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association; along with myself on the end.

In addition to the awards ceremony, BK and Alfredo jointly presented a session the following day: A “Behind the Scenes” Look at the World Cocoa Foundation’s Field Training Program. BK prefaced the talk by discussing the Farmer Field School (FFS) Methodology, its history of how it got started in cocoa and how it all works. Alfredo then followed by presenting several real life examples of cocoa farmers and their stories of how the FFS training helped them to make a better life for themselves and their families, while also helping their farmer neighbors in learning better cocoa farming techniques. The presentation concluded with a video of Ecuadorian farmers. The presentations and video will be posted shortly so please stop back.

*For those of you who may not be familiar with PMCA, it is a non-profit international trade association in the confectionery industry. PMCA provides open forums for exchange of technical information through its Annual Production Conference; promotes and directs basic and applied scientific research in the science of chocolate and confectionery through its Research Program at leading universities; and trains technical and manufacturing personnel worldwide through its Short Course Program.

Blog Entry: Richard Asare, Cocoa Agroforester, Forest & Landscape Denmark/International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

I have always been fascinated by the way smallholder cocoa farmers in West Africa have been able to farm cocoa, a tree that originated in the Amazon forest in South America. Through their ingenuity West African farmers have been able to establish and maintain a forested cocoa ecosystem which now accounts for 70 percent of the global cocoa supply.

Many smallholder cocoa farms in countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon are what scientists and researchers have termed “cocoa agroforests” due to their high levels of plant diversity, including high value timber trees, fruit trees, food crops, herbs and other shrubs. These cocoa agroforests reflect the concept of tree diversification; farmers’ efforts to increase species diversity on farm and across the managed landscape in order to enhance economic gains, improve agronomic productivity and contribute to biodiversity conservation.

As an agricultural advisor from Forest and Landscape Denmark working for the Sustainable Tree Crops Program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with the World Cocoa Foundation I realized that for cocoa agroforestry to achieve its intended goals, we need to support farmers’ efforts by providing relevant technical knowledge on the dynamics of the system and also the neighbour trees (i.e., trees in cocoa agroforests other than the cocoa tree itself) in the cocoa growing systems.

Photo: Richard Asare discussing tree species during an STCP farmer field school in Cameroon.

For the past three years, my work has been helping to identify forest trees that are both beneficial to farmers, and to the fragile tropical environment where cocoa grows. The idea is to generate enough local and scientific knowledge about these tree species to help farmers improve their cocoa agroforestry practices.

At the moment I am working closely with farmers in Ghana to develop a comprehensive framework that packages tree diversification in a way that improves, encourages and promotes local knowledge according to environmental conditions, farmer tree species preferences, market demands, and improved planting material availability. The framework has three main components: 1) a decision-making tool for neighbour tree selection in cocoa establishments; 2) designing of an appropriate planting arrangement for neighbour trees and cocoa to promote healthy interdependency and; 3) ensuring accessibility to improved planting materials of these forest trees.

Photo: Mr. Ackoh from Bonteso in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, farming companion trees which are compatible with cocoa.

The challenge so far is that many policies governing naturally occurring high value timber species in cocoa farms discourage farmers from keeping these trees on their farms, or inhibit farmers from reaping adequate benefits. Across West Africa, timber trees are technically owned by governments. However, together with farmers we are developing a way to register planted and nurtured timber trees on farm in order to redefine tree ownership to suit the needs of farmers.